Autumn

It's becoming cool outside. Mornings are quite cool and bring the beginnings of frost. Sadly my outdoor posts will need to end and I will need to retreat to the warmth of the studio and gaze outdoors longingly for the warm, green liveliness of the gardens. Tomatoes are being harvested soon and I hear that kettles of pasta sauce will be made. I may stroll in and have a photo for you.

Warm Regards,
Betty

A Request for Identification

Dear Friends,

We received cuttings from the Post Office a while ago. We have two cuttings that have grown fabulously in the kitchen, growing up the wall and blossoming these big gorgeous blooms. We are so pleased with their presence and dramatic stance.

Unfortunately, we have no name for this plant. Are any of our readers familiar with them? We were lucky enough to have them in bloom for their photos. Wonderful, aren't they?

Warm Regards,
Betty

Pepper Trial

We have grown Bell Peppers over the years. Ours were found to be thin skinned and not very tasty. These photographs show peppers that are new to our garden. I have only been told that they are Italian Drying Peppers. We are told that when the temperatures begin to near freezing, we are to pull up the plant in its entirety and hang to dry. We look forward to trying these dried peppers.

Surprisingly and thankfully, these new vegetables were not touched by our forest friends.

It is our theory that the long grassy weeds confuses them.

Warm Regards,

Betty

A quick tour of todays flowers.

Another happy bee, this one has landed on the Statice.

This is Phlox, I believe. It smelled heavenly like perfume.

We have grown Angels Trumpet in the garden but this year we chose the Ballerina variety. It is taller, with fewer blossoms and later to bloom. Here is a first blossom ready for bloom.

Tomorrow we begin to pick, first flowers for bouquets, flowers to dry and tomatoes for sauce.

Sadly, this will be the start of the end of gardening season.

Warn Regards,

Betty

The Sunflower and the Bee.

Dear Friends,

Today a bee was captured on camera.

The chubby looking bee didn't seem to mind us at all.

It seems our presence was not as important as this bountiful flower.

Warm Regards,

Betty

Tomatoes

We have an unusually abundant crop of tomatoes this year. Apparently our forest friends have no desire to feast upon this plant. All tomatoe plants remain intact with lots of tomatoes. We do have a concern. They are green, all of them and the Vermont nights are getting cooler, dropping to below 50 degrees. We would like them to redden on the vine but we may, in the end, find ourselves with an abundance of paper bags lined up in the house doing the job that the garden did not. We will see.

Here is a pictorial of the many kinds of tomatoes we grew.

Warm Regards,

Betty

Cosmos

We love our Cosmos. They are so bright, happy, and colorful that they make outstanding, although wild-looking arrangements for the house.

 And we're told deer hate them. We made Cosmos a border plant surrounding our garden and so far, not a hoof mark has been found in our garden soil.

Warm Regards,

Betty